Muslim Should Not Equal Villain

[magicmonkeybars]

Muslims in My Monitor

From Prince of Persia to the recent Medal of Honor news of playable Taliban, the depiction of Muslims in videogames hasn't been any more even-handed than American TV or movies. Saladin Ahmed is one Muslim gamer who'd like to see that change.

Read Full Article

Just because you're a muslim doesn't mean you know anything about or understand islam, kindly STFU.
When it comes to slavery, wars of conquest and conversion, oppression and exploitation of the populations of world you have no legs to stand on.
Don't give me that holier then thou attitude like you never did anything wrong.
In the end islam is still a religion made up of humans and it doesn't take a genius to pick up a history book and read about the horrors we visit upon eachother.
Islam has a bad rap but it deserves every letter of it.
So does any other human movement.

 

[JWAN]

As far as games go, terrorists are the new nazis/godless communist oppressors. They aren't just Muslims they are terrorists that just happen to be Muslim. If so many of them want a better image of Islam then they need to stand up, say so, and start hunting the crazies like the rest of the planet.

That being said, it might be a small percentage of Muslims, like between 1 and 3%, but that's still about 10-30 million people dedicated to the wholesale destruction of "infidels" and unless your one of them, your in the "infidel"category, and therefore a target.

 

[Saladin Ahmed]

When it comes to slavery, wars of conquest and conversion, oppression and exploitation of the populations of world you have no legs to stand on.

Um...where exactly did I claim that Islamic history is free of these things? Muslims are human beings. Of course they've done all of the same villainous things -- and all the same heroic things - that human beings have done throughout history. What does this have to do with the article?

Don't give me that holier then thou attitude like you never did anything wrong.

You're right. You're...right. This one time, in fourth grade, I...I knocked down another kid and took Optimus Prime from him!

::breaks down weeping::

WHEN WILL THE OTHER MUSLIMS OF THE WORLD CONDEMN THIS BARBARITY!?

 

[The Cheezy One]

Following people would like to have a word with you on stopping to complain and get over it: Russians, Germans.

youve probably been quoted a load all ready, but i have to agree
its been decades since the cold war, which wasnt really a war. but if we need a bad guy to represent an equal power to america, its either russia or china
i think the germans are a bit better off these days
red alert 1 was the best, right?
the lead generals were german and greek, the main contributing forces were germany, france and britain (spies rule!) and america had very little to do with it for some reason
russians were still bad, but ot cartoonishly so.
all in all, it is still the best paced RTS i have ever played
go to hell ea, you shat out (and on) a couple mediocre/bad sequels to a brilliant game
im looking at petroglyph closely, as they consist of the lead designers of westwood studios, who made RA1

Don't give me that holier then thou attitude like you never did anything wrong.

You're right. You're...right. This one time, in fourth grade, I...I knocked down another kid and took Optimus Prime from him!

::breaks down weeping::

WHEN WILL THE OTHER MUSLIMS OF THE WORLD CONDEMN THIS BARBARITY!?

it seems that is all some people need to judge others
im as white as you can get really, white friends, good background, i grew up in a good area of london, but i like to think im fair and open minded. im christian myself, practicing, but i like people of other religions. i think everyone needs to realise, in terms of religion and humanity, that we are ALL young, so none of us has the right to judge any other person, unless they have researched every possible event in the world, and manage to somehow quantify it

hold on... optimus prime?

BURN HIM AT THE STAKE!
(kidding!)

 

[Negatempest]

I could write a reply about how everyone is treated equally, but than I remember that everyone is treated equally in a negative way.

African Americans: Looked upon as thugs who live in the "ghettos". A really bad stereotype.

Mexican Americans: Seen as people who's existence in America is ruining the economy. I have SEEN people blame them for this 1st hand.

Muslims: They are terrorists and nothing else. Horrible stereotype.

Jews: These group of people actually have MANY organizations that hate their existence...publicly!

Americans in General: Seen by the rest of the World as the personification of the Deadly 7 Sins. Watching foreign news is fun!

EVERYONE is hated, to just choose one out of everyone is egotistic to me. Does this make me sound like a prick? It does, but I really am not the type of person to feel sorry for just one group when ALL of us are in the ****s together.

 

[Simonism451]

Muslims in My Monitor

From Prince of Persia to the recent Medal of Honor news of playable Taliban, the depiction of Muslims in videogames hasn't been any more even-handed than American TV or movies. Saladin Ahmed is one Muslim gamer who'd like to see that change.

Read Full Article

Just because you're a muslim doesn't mean you know anything about or understand islam, kindly STFU.
When it comes to slavery, wars of conquest and conversion, oppression and exploitation of the populations of world you have no legs to stand on.
Don't give me that holier then thou attitude like you never did anything wrong.
In the end islam is still a religion made up of humans and it doesn't take a genius to pick up a history book and read about the horrors we visit upon eachother.
Islam has a bad rap but it deserves every letter of it.
So does any other human movement.

Then I don't know what's your problem with Islam being portrayed like most of the other human movements.

 

[Fatal-X]

Games simply try to find some realistic opponents to fight and in current time the Muslim fanatics who openly say that they want free counties to burn...are great for this role. So basically I can't say anything bad about killing terrorists in video games.

 

[Ghostkai]

I get what you're saying Mr. OP, but in certain examples, like say ,PoP or Aladdin, isn't EVERYONE Muslim?

However, you make a fair point, though as some people have said, Russians (who are more often than not depicted as being behind an Islamic insurrection) and Germans also get it pretty rough.

 

[Electrogecko]

Following people would like to have a word with you on stopping to complain and get over it: Russians, Germans.

Not funny, certainly not smart!

To deny that Germans and Russians are still villains after decades is just moronic

I hope you mean "To say/imply that Germans and Russians are still villains after decades is just moronic."

 

[Omnific One]

When I play CoD, do I think, goddamn, it feels good to put some Muslims in their place? No. I think, goddamn, it feels good to put some terrorists in their place.

When you say AC is balanced, I will say... hahaha, no. I only remember one somewhat "good" Christian, Maria or whatever her name was. I remember dozens of characterized or semi-characterized Muslims who were good. Plus, you were slaughtering Christians wholesale during missions. That doesn't seem at all balanced. I'm not complaining about it as I love the game even as a Christian.

Finally, the Western game companies do not portray Muslims as bad, only extremists. However, when we see headlines along the line of "Iran creating videogames attacking Zionists," that tends to hurt the position of Muslims in games. Personally, I see the importance of having varied religions but I wouldn't say that their portrayal is that bad, considering.

 

[Sillyiggy]

Persecution complexes are fun.

 

[Imat]

Following people would like to have a word with you on stopping to complain and get over it: Russians, Germans.

Not funny, certainly not smart!

What? It's true aint it. Every time that Russians appear in a movie or a TV series, they are depicted as the big bad that needs to be overcome.

Germans in games only pop up in WORLD WAR II games and in movies and TV, germans aren't exactly spared as well.

Yet, not a lot of people complain about it beyond: Not again!

There are plenty of games featuring Germans not trying to appease Hitler. Ironically, most of them feature GSG9 or some other police/counter-terrorist force. I'd say the only "hated" Germany is Nazi Germany, and I don't blame modern Germans for that.

And Russians aren't always the bad guys either. There are several examples of Russians being the good guys, such as Enemy at the Gates, and not all of them take place during WW2 (Anastasia). Call of Duty 1 and 2 had them as a campaign, which is my favorite set of campaigns (One gets you promoted, the other has an awesome scene where Panzers roll over the trench you're in, and only gets better from there), and in CoD4 I'm pretty sure the bad guys were a terrorist ("Ultranationalist") cell (of Russians, fair enough), in Russia. The Russian government doesn't condone the actions of the ultranationalists.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Well America is pretty xenophobic about Muslims.

What's this in the news? The ground zero mosque? Oh yes. that.

 

[Towels]

I love Civilization, this being one reason. Playing as historical figures that are typically portrayed as antagonists gives me a since of "seeing the other side of the coin." You can play as Mao, you can play as Stalin. I hope Fraxis goes for gold and lets me play as Hitler in Civ5.

Plus I enjoyed playing as Saladin, peacefully spreading Judaism for economic gain as expansionist Hindu Romans invaded my peace-loving country and my Christian Chinese neighbors ignored my plight. It paradises religious crusades in general.

 

[Autofaux]

The 1950s turned sour for everyone, not only did the Cold War happen but it was a massive spike in Islamist appraisal. Imam Khomeini didn't make things any easier, nor did the several other vocal supporters of this political style, or the fact that Muhammad was a real pirate back in the day.

Maybe the boogieman appeal of Muslims will die down, maybe it won't. I know the U.S. Government is trying to reverse it with that new President of yours. Or maybe *just* the President is trying to reverse it. He is but one cog in the machine.

 

[Abedeus]

Wait, what about Assassin's Creed? Weren't like 95% of the people there Muslim?

"Altaiir, my friend! Welcome!"

 

[mythgraven]

"American media has been unfriendly to Muslims for years, and unfortunately, videogames are rarely an exception."


...Has Muslim media been friendly to Americans, this whole time, and I missed it?


Whiskey Echo!
mythgraven

 

[Ryan Hodros]

Aren't we forgetting the most common of all the common villain stereotypes? The rich white man. Not only does the rich white man show up as the villain in movies, he's also the most common villain tv shows, comics, video games, and Archie cartoon strips. More often than not, the extend of the rich white man's characterization is that he's rich and white.

And as much as everyone would like to blame racism or classism on these kinds of trends in entertainment, let us not turn a blind eye to the real villain: lazy writers. Muslims turn up as villains in a lot of today's video games because America is currently at war with two Muslim nations. Therefore, muslim characters don't need to be developed as characters because American children can already associate them (in their simple child way) with villainy. Not because they're Muslim, but because we're at war with them. They could easily be replaced with any other stock character we've been at war with at any time. Hell, half the time they could be replaced with a black sillouette character with the word "villain" written across his chest. Through lazy writing, various races and classes have replaced the old western "guy with a black hat" as the easily identifiable villain.

The same can also be said of WWII era germans, japanese, russians, and rich white men. The same can also be said of Mongols, the English, Americans (outside of America, most of the time), corporations, and so on down the line. Half these writers stop only a step or two short of having a narrator tell us "he's the villain because he's ."

It's not necessarily racism (though it definitely feeds racism at times). It's just lazy writers doing a crappy job, and nobody has the sense to call them out on it. If you really want to change this, tell everyone on forums like these to stop buying poorly written games.

Rent first, buy later.